PHILADELPHIA >> On Wednesday, Clean Air Council, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and Mountain Watershed Association, Inc. filed two new lawsuits against the Department of Environmental Protection and Sunoco Pipeline L.P. for what these organizations say is unlawful conduct related to Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipelines.

On Feb. 8, DEP and Sunoco entered into a consent order and Agreement that allowed Sunoco to resume construction activities that had been shut down by DEP on Jan. 3 because of what these organizations say is a mounting list of Sunoco’s willful and egregious permit violations.

The Consent Order and Agreement walked back environmental protections that DEP and Sunoco had previously committed to in their August 2017 settlement with the groups, and in particular, weakened the protocols for preventing and responding to drilling fluid spills.

These spills, most frequently the result of Sunoco’s horizontal directional drilling practices, have disturbed drinking water supplies and other natural resources across the state.

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Vicki Anderson Granado, spokesperson for Energy Transfer Partners, said the lawsuits will only serve to slow down the pipeline project.

“We believe that these suits are without merit,” she said. “We remain fully in compliance with all agreements and permits and are committed to doing so throughout the remainder of our construction. This is a disingenuous attempt by the opposition to continue to try to find a way to slow down this important infrastructure project that is 94 percent complete on mainline construction, with 84 percent of drills completed or underway. We look forward to being in service by the end of the second quarter.”

Clean Air Council’s Senior Litigation Attorney Alex Bomstein said Wednesday there was a breach of contract and the public trust by Sunoco.

“Sunoco withdrew the protections that Sunoco and DEP agreed to in writing and were put in place by the settlement agreement,” Bomstein said.

The attorney said that DEP and Sunoco had agreed that when multiple discharges of drilling fluid in the same spot, or when a large discharge occurs, an inspection by DEP would be required.

Bomstein said that the DEP is currently only inspecting sites that reach water through streams or wetlands.

Sunoco disturbed the well water of more than 30 West Whiteland residents. The company hooked all but one of the homeowners up to public water and paid each $60,000.

On Feb. 8, a consent order and agreement with the Environmental Hearing Board and a separate breach of contract complaint in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, including a request for an injunction was filed.

“It is unacceptable that groups like ours had to force DEP and Sunoco to agree to these important environmental protections in the first place,” Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., executive director and chief of Clean Air Council said. “To walk back legally-required protections now not only violates our agreement, it is an incredible breach of the public’s trust by an agency that is supposed to be serving them.”

“When DEP halted construction of Mariner East 2, it seemed like they were finally listening to the concerns of impacted residents and communities. However, by allowing construction to resume and scaling back hard-fought environmental protections, DEP leaves us no other choice but to take legal action yet again to protect citizens’ rights,” said Melissa Marshall, attorney with Mountain Watershed Association.

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said DEP has demonstrated a tremendous bias in support of pipelines serving the fracking industry.

“As a result, communities are being consistently abused by the industry with the full support of the DEP,” van Rossum said. “DEP entering into an agreement with Sunoco that ignores their obligations to our organizations and the communities we represent, is a sad testament to just how in bed with the industry DEP is.”